Compounded Annual Grunt Rate (CAGR)
“We are poised for quantum leap”
“we have what it takes to grow really big”
“scale is the game of the name and the name of the game” …Roared Sukchar…CEO of a Small Sized Company.
His Guru asked Sukchar as to, “What is growth?” and “Why growth?”.
Sukchar said that everybody everywhere is expanding. Growth is life, and stagnancy or degrowth is death.
Guru asked “does growth guarantee no-death of a corporate?”. Sukchar paused and then stuttered and then could offer only blank wide eyes.
Guru then turned the gaze and said…”look at the universe”. At any given point of time, the Universe is massively expanding (scientists have numerous researches to support this) and they say that there shall come a time when successive scale would lead to implosion.
Guru continued to explain that it is Nature’s nature to teach…we should learn.
He then added that there is a beautiful balance and cosmos in the way nature manages itself.
Guru then quizzed Sukchar to name one empire or religion or kingdom or economy in history which has ever expanded at high growth rates and still doing so. Sukchar’s mind wobbled and his tongue anchored in static.
Guru then queried about the Capitalist Quest and asked to name companies that have consistently expanded at the same rate repeatedly over decades. Most companies that focused only on Growth and not it’s quality led to premature vanishing act (either imploding or getting merged or acquired). But Sukchar said to himself that this time it’s different and that he is in full control of his destiny and charismatically inclined, “The narrated fate would not visit me even as my guest”
What followed next few years was a damn mad rush for growth. Grow the revenues…grow the profit…grow the reach…grow the brand…get into this business and get into that business…get into this market and that too…hire this one and fire those ones…etc.
The organization was not ready for this dance. Backbone for growth grossly needed orthopaedics. Roadmap was like a hung navigation screen. Culture was like this polluted and confused air and honk at a very busy traffic signals.
The cracks would not lie and lie low for a long time. It showed up. Customers were grunt at poor product attributes and an even poorer service attributes. Vendors grunting at step-treatment. Employees grunt on culture, unfair policies, and staring at the death of the once promising potentiality of the company.
Suddenly the Compounded Annual Growth Rate turned into Compounded Annual Grunt Rate.
When the collective consciousness of leadership is engaged in only Compounded Annual Growth Rates, they somehow seem to ignore or rear-view the “True Purpose” of the business. All the measurables somehow seem to focus on ever-fast financial numbers, market share, irrational cost structures, price improvements, marinating finance with engineering, etc. But in so doing, the foundation of the business remains somewhat low shelf-life and mostly unscalable.
I believe that most product or service have an esoteric nature and this esoteric nature expands to the Business having elements of:
1. Simple and Super Purpose…a purpose that collapses the boundaries of imagination, that decimates ones ego and draws the person to rise above self-desires. A purpose larger than an institution…longer than a generation…wider than the regional boundaries.
In Vedas, it is called a Sankalp…intention…purpose. Brilliant efforts and fabulous outcomes offer itself for a “Sankalp”…
…most corporate want to force fit a differentiator and hence keep embellishing the sankalp in such a manner that it is removed from core crux and longevity.
2. A Corporate is an Emotional Being and not a Conceptual Construct.
….somehow corporate aka “professionalism” and “emotional” do not get along together. They say that one should not get emotional about things…but people forget that we are fundamentally emotional beings. And then on other hand these same people use words like passion and energy. All passions and energies have deep roots in emotions. Businesses should develop effortless virtue and habit of using ones viveka or discretion for better ecosystem, more happiness, more love, more purity, more bliss for all stakeholders.
The company should closely observe their traction towards the purpose or sankalp and also the emotions as to whether the company’s behaviour, choices, have helped create more happiness and better ecology.
Because each year’s target shall be compounded over for the next year and Each year’s grunts shall get Compounded too. The Rajasic gunas or the expansive posture needs to be tamed with a Sattvic or the sustainable native.
It is surely difficult for entrepreneurs or leaders to somehow subdue their desire for rapid scale even if it is at the cost of disgruntlement. But surely and with great certainty the mad rush will result in only chaos and whirlpool. One that none of the stakeholders will be able to comprehend…forget managing. And the fundamental question is not whether to or not to have growth. It is whether the company is geared for delivering the purpose and emotional quotient to all its stakeholders alike and consistently. Else Entrepreneurs will be only turning into serial killers (of purpose and emotions) through their serial entrepreneurship.
Life is neither short nor long,
When Company it is to be.
Let Purpose and Emotions parent the Growth,
And Growth not Father thee.
“we have what it takes to grow really big”
“scale is the game of the name and the name of the game” …Roared Sukchar…CEO of a Small Sized Company.
His Guru asked Sukchar as to, “What is growth?” and “Why growth?”.
Sukchar said that everybody everywhere is expanding. Growth is life, and stagnancy or degrowth is death.
Guru asked “does growth guarantee no-death of a corporate?”. Sukchar paused and then stuttered and then could offer only blank wide eyes.
Guru then turned the gaze and said…”look at the universe”. At any given point of time, the Universe is massively expanding (scientists have numerous researches to support this) and they say that there shall come a time when successive scale would lead to implosion.
Guru continued to explain that it is Nature’s nature to teach…we should learn.
He then added that there is a beautiful balance and cosmos in the way nature manages itself.
Guru then quizzed Sukchar to name one empire or religion or kingdom or economy in history which has ever expanded at high growth rates and still doing so. Sukchar’s mind wobbled and his tongue anchored in static.
Guru then queried about the Capitalist Quest and asked to name companies that have consistently expanded at the same rate repeatedly over decades. Most companies that focused only on Growth and not it’s quality led to premature vanishing act (either imploding or getting merged or acquired). But Sukchar said to himself that this time it’s different and that he is in full control of his destiny and charismatically inclined, “The narrated fate would not visit me even as my guest”
What followed next few years was a damn mad rush for growth. Grow the revenues…grow the profit…grow the reach…grow the brand…get into this business and get into that business…get into this market and that too…hire this one and fire those ones…etc.
The organization was not ready for this dance. Backbone for growth grossly needed orthopaedics. Roadmap was like a hung navigation screen. Culture was like this polluted and confused air and honk at a very busy traffic signals.
The cracks would not lie and lie low for a long time. It showed up. Customers were grunt at poor product attributes and an even poorer service attributes. Vendors grunting at step-treatment. Employees grunt on culture, unfair policies, and staring at the death of the once promising potentiality of the company.
Suddenly the Compounded Annual Growth Rate turned into Compounded Annual Grunt Rate.
When the collective consciousness of leadership is engaged in only Compounded Annual Growth Rates, they somehow seem to ignore or rear-view the “True Purpose” of the business. All the measurables somehow seem to focus on ever-fast financial numbers, market share, irrational cost structures, price improvements, marinating finance with engineering, etc. But in so doing, the foundation of the business remains somewhat low shelf-life and mostly unscalable.
I believe that most product or service have an esoteric nature and this esoteric nature expands to the Business having elements of:
1. Simple and Super Purpose…a purpose that collapses the boundaries of imagination, that decimates ones ego and draws the person to rise above self-desires. A purpose larger than an institution…longer than a generation…wider than the regional boundaries.
In Vedas, it is called a Sankalp…intention…purpose. Brilliant efforts and fabulous outcomes offer itself for a “Sankalp”…
…most corporate want to force fit a differentiator and hence keep embellishing the sankalp in such a manner that it is removed from core crux and longevity.
2. A Corporate is an Emotional Being and not a Conceptual Construct.
….somehow corporate aka “professionalism” and “emotional” do not get along together. They say that one should not get emotional about things…but people forget that we are fundamentally emotional beings. And then on other hand these same people use words like passion and energy. All passions and energies have deep roots in emotions. Businesses should develop effortless virtue and habit of using ones viveka or discretion for better ecosystem, more happiness, more love, more purity, more bliss for all stakeholders.
The company should closely observe their traction towards the purpose or sankalp and also the emotions as to whether the company’s behaviour, choices, have helped create more happiness and better ecology.
Because each year’s target shall be compounded over for the next year and Each year’s grunts shall get Compounded too. The Rajasic gunas or the expansive posture needs to be tamed with a Sattvic or the sustainable native.
It is surely difficult for entrepreneurs or leaders to somehow subdue their desire for rapid scale even if it is at the cost of disgruntlement. But surely and with great certainty the mad rush will result in only chaos and whirlpool. One that none of the stakeholders will be able to comprehend…forget managing. And the fundamental question is not whether to or not to have growth. It is whether the company is geared for delivering the purpose and emotional quotient to all its stakeholders alike and consistently. Else Entrepreneurs will be only turning into serial killers (of purpose and emotions) through their serial entrepreneurship.
Life is neither short nor long,
When Company it is to be.
Let Purpose and Emotions parent the Growth,
And Growth not Father thee.
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